Maine

Volunteers Needed for Operation COS Surge at Maine State House!

The Convention of States Team in Maine will be heading to the Maine State House to hand deliver articles about the Article V process and the goals of the Convention of States Project to legislators starting on the opening day of the next session of the 127th on January 6th.

This is going to be a great opportunity not only for our state legislators to learn more about their duty and authority under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, but also for our grassroots activists from around the state to build strong relationships with them.

The Need: Until very recently, there has been little public discussion about Article V of the Constitution. To make matters worse, there is a lot of misinformation surrounding the subject that must be counteracted with true, accurate information in a condensed, easy-to-read-and-understand format for busy legislators. What we have learned is that when a legislative initiative is new or unfamiliar, and when the amount of evidence for each side of the issue appears to be roughly even, most legislators’ tendency is toward inaction.

The Project: Our goal is to provide every legislator in every state that has not yet passed our application with true, accurate educational information about Article V and its potential to resolve specific current policy issues in their states—all in a condensed, easy-to-read-and-understand format at regular intervals throughout their legislative sessions.

How It Will Work: We have developed a database of around 20 well-written articles on Article-V related topics that will be of particular interest to legislators. Each article will then be professionally designed as an attractive, single page (front-back) print-ready PDF. Delivery of the articles to legislators will occur in both of the following ways:

The Personal Touch. Each state leadership team (with the exception of the 4 states that have already passed our application) will be offered a menu containing descriptions of the available articles. Each team will then choose a number of articles of their choice for personal delivery to all legislators at the state capitol during the 2016 legislative session. The number of articles they choose will correspond to the number of times they will assemble a team of volunteers to personally deliver the articles at the capitol.

The National Touch. To complement and enhance the efforts of the volunteer teams, one article per week will be sent via PDF e-mail attachment from the national staff to all legislators in the 46 states that have not yet passed our application. This will ensure that all legislators are receiving a steady drip of educational materials, even in states where the volunteers can only manage a handful of trips to the capitol.

There are at least three different types of impact we expect from this project:

Educational Impact. We will be providing legislators across the country with a steady diet of concise, easy-to-read information about the Constitution from some of the nation’s premier constitutional experts. Our collective experience has taught us that when legislators feel confident in their understanding about a complex subject, they will be motivated to take action to move the initiative forward. We believe that virtually every legislator who shares our view that the federal government must be restrained and is armed with a good education about Article V will vote in favor of passing our application.

Political Impact. Our state leaders and volunteers make a significant statement when they take to the halls of their state capitol buildings and make personal visits to every legislator in the building. When we show these legislators this level of volunteer commitment and grassroots activism, we demonstrate that in addition to being the right thing to do, voting for our model application is also the politically expedient thing to do.

Grassroots Impact. Some of our grassroots volunteers are individuals with years of activism behind them. But others are citizens who are just now waking up to the reality of our national crisis and just beginning to learn how to be activists. To some of them, the idea of visiting legislators at the state capitol is intimidating. Our experience has taught us that when we give these volunteers a simple but compelling mission, such as delivering particular articles to legislators, they are willing and excited to do it. This project will motivate and empower our grassroots army.

We Need Activists To Volunteer For Operation COS Surge!

Over the next 10 weeks we will have teams of volunteers heading to the State House on a weekly basis to hand deliver professional articles about the Convention of States to our legislators. Our goal is to have at least 10 volunteers per week to help us. If you are interested please fill out our OPERATION COS SURGE FORM or contact our Grassroots Coordinator Muffett Crowell at (850) 501-2709 or email at edmuff@myfairpoint.net

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